The Inside Scoop

This week, we were all abuzz... it was time to look INSIDE of our eggs!  But how?  Friends offered many good ideas: "Let's get an X-Ray!  We need a CATSCAN!  What about the camera that goes inside my mommy's belly when she's going to have a baby?  Can we crack them?"  Read on for more news about our egg-citing process..

Daily Five
- Word Families: team games and partnered activites, as well as individual Word Work, all centered around our latest additions -ug, -ut-, -un (plus an unusual word family not from our master list, but quite fitting with all the eggs in SK... -uck!  Duck, cluck, truck, muck...we found it in our fiction Duck books all over the place!)
- Chunking: reading and writing both use lots of tools - we love to chunk our words instead of stretching ever single sound!  To-day... today!  Duck-l-ing...duckling!)
- Book Shop: friends emptied out their book boxes and used their smarts to select new books that are a Just Right Fit for them!  Fresh books often mean a renewed interest in Read To Self and Read To Someone!

Language
- Printing: A/a starred in our alliteration show this week!  Ask your adventurous SKer all about how A/a acted in his/her alliteration story this awesome, amazing week!
- Journals: Our journaling has gone ducky.. read more about our "egg" work in the Science section.

Math
- Math Stations: our last round of math stations has come and gone this week - friends loved writing their own addition and subtraction stories, using a variety of tools to inspire self-created equations!  They spun for different numbers of fruit to add/subtract, they pulled cards to write number stories, they grouped popsicle sticks into 10's and 1's to write teen numbers... they are experts by now!  Next up: the focus shifts to time and money, our big push for spring!
- Real Life Number Stories: we used our diverse duck eggs (tan!  brown!  bluish green!  white!) to tell adding/subtracting stories for friends to sort out answers to.  Things got really interesting once we candled the eggs (read on below!) and we found out that some eggs did, and didn't, have growing ducklings inside.. more number stories to tell, write, and solve!

Science
- Theories: SKer's illustrated and dictated their theories about what is going on inside our eggs now, and what will happen over the next few weeks.  It was thrilling to compare and contrast each other's ideas about the growth and development of baby ducks inside of their eggs over time!  We are also looking forward to revising these theories, as we continue to gain more information.
- Egg Charting: Friends charted many things about our eggs... first: how many we have (13).  Then, their different colors (5 blue/green, 1 brown, 2 tan, 3 white).  Next, what was inside of them (9 with air sacs, blood vessels, dark spots, 3 with only a golden yolk inside, and 1 with something in between... hmmmm!)
- Candling: We found out all of the above information when we "candled" our eggs, using a bright light that shines up and through the egg, illuminating its contents for us to observe.  It was a magical time, all huddled together in the deep dark playroom beneath the school, thrilling with each egg that showed growth, and puzzling over our mystery eggs that hadn't been growing at all.
- Candling Before/After: Friends illustrated their idea of what we'd see both before we candled, and then again after we candled.  They demonstrated such good thinking, and attention to detail!  Many friends knew interesting pieces of the egg puzzle... like that breaking an egg would hurt the duckling ("They're not fully grown yet!  They need more time to go!") or that the yolk inside has an important job ("It's duckling food!").  We look forward to doing more reserach and learning more about all the different parts inside the egg that we began observing this week.

Announcements/Reminders
- Mother's Day Art Show: Invitations coming soon!  Please save Wednesday May 8th from 6-7pm to attent the show (just mamas and SKer's, please!)
- Krista's Superstar: We're looking forward to celebrating on Tuesday, April 30th!
- Back Soon!  Mrs. Duffey will be out Monday to take a test, and Friday to travel for wedding festivities... our dear friend Mrs. Peterson will be here!